The best football management simulation yet. (Football Manager 2005 (PC))

Member Name: docpov

Product:	Football Manager 2005 (PC)
Date:	11/08/05 (945 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Absorbing and addictive

Disadvantages: You may lose large chunks of your life playing this game.

“OH we are the tractor boys Oh we are the tractor boys” is the resounding chant as Docpov makes his entrance as the new manager of Ipswich Town FC. The fans are wary and not in full agreement about my appointment, being an obscure rookie. My credentials are not up to much and many fans are not happy with my appointment. So it is up to me to make sure that I can get them onside with good results as soon as possible.

It is going to be a daunting task, the first time I look at my computer I am faced with screen after screen of facts, giving me details of every facet of my new club. Individual profiles of all my players giving numerical values (1 to 20) for all their strengths and weaknesses and skills. This is for my first team squad and reserves and the youngsters of my under 18’s squad. Personality traits are also available as well as the player’s history.
The same is there for my staff, my assistants, coaches, scouts and Physio’s.
But it doesn’t stop there I also have details of the financial state of the club and what money is available to invest in the transfer market (not a lot in my case).
I have full control of the training regime of my players as well as picking the team although I can delegate as much of this responsibility to my assistants as I wish. I think I shall put control of the reserves and under 18’s in the hands of my assistant.

So I have all this information, what am I going to do with it? The first thing to do is familiarise my self with my players and see what, if any areas I need to buy new players for. I see I am weak on the right side of midfield and defence. Time to dive into the transfer market, Where to start, there are thousands of players out there, how on earth am I going to find the player for me? This is where my scouts help me. I can send them off to any part of the world to look for players of a certain type and value. I can also use the filters that will allow me to narrow my own search to players that fit the bill and that I can afford.
I have found the player I want and he is out of contract so I won’t have to pay his club anything to sign him. Great, now I just have to offer him a contract that he is happy with. Not as easy as it sounds, footballers are greedy and as I do not have the resources to offer him thousands every week he may well not want to come to my club so I have to add incentives and then hope he likes the idea.

Meanwhile the new season is fast approaching and preseason friendlies are looming. Time to pick the first team and get them ready for action.
I have a couple of injury worries so will have to call upon the services of a couple of reserve players, still good chance to have a look at some of the youngsters who could be the superstars of tomorrow.

Matchday has arrived and it is time to work out tactics. Every facet of match tactics is available, from which formation I will play to who takes the corners to who will be marking whom. The list goes on.
Well I have done all I can, now it is up to the players to do the job for me. The match starts.
I can follow the action on a 2D screen with numbered dots representing the players. There is also running commentary across the bottom of the screen. It is actually a lot better and more exiting to follow than it sounds. I can keep an eye on how individual players are performing and if any are getting tired as well as any injuries that may occur throughout the game.
GOAL my first goal as Town manager and satisfying it is too, the team is performing well.
It is half time and I can see that a couple of my players are getting tired so time for some substitutions. I will tweak a few things on the tactic screen too to tighten up the defence. The second half goes well and Yey the final whistle, I have won my first game in charge.

That is only the start though after a few more friendlies it will be time to start the season for real. Then I will have to fill my boots.

I get news of what is happening in the football world every game turn to help see what players are moving clubs or who want a move, any injuries or if any of my players are unhappy. I also get media messages and questions and a chance to quote on things myself.


So that’s that, football manager 2005 in a nutshell. If you played the Championship manager games preceded this one you will probably recognise the gameplay which is the same but which runs a lot smoother and with many enhancements. If you haven’t then I hope I have given you an insight into what is a truly remarkable game.

A quick bit of history. The Championship Manager games were the product of Sports Interactive and Eidos. Sports Interactive has now split from Eidos and Football manager game 2005 is published by Sega. All the data and gameplay details were retained by sports interactive and is the game Football Manager 2005. However Eidos kept the Championship manager title and will be releasing their own version shortly. Should be an interesting comparison.

I am running the game on a Pentium 4, 1.7 GHz system, which is just below the recommended 1.8 GHz but it runs smoothly with no noticeable slow down. The other system recommendations are pretty standard and include 256 Meg Ram and an 8x CD-ROM drive.

I bought the game from PC World for £34.99 although I have seen it cheaper on Amazon.

To sum up. Football Manager 2005 is a huge and involving game and takes time to master. There are so many details that it can be daunting to start but once things start to click into place the fascination of the game takes over and you may lose large chunks of your life to this game.
There are thousands of playable teams from around the world that are available for you to manage with all teams and players being correct at the time the game was released. Saying that I bet most people who play the game will be like me and take charge of the team they support.

I hope you enjoy your experience as a football manager, I know I am.

Summary: Simply absorbing and addictive.